Examples of companies offering sick leave donation programs?

January 23, 2007 1:26 PM

I'm seeking examples of for-profit companies offering a program to allow employees to donate unused sick leave days to other employees who have none.

My company is considering implementing such a program, the idea of which is that employees could voluntarily donate, up to a maximum number of days, sick leave to other employees whose sick leave has run out as a result of a catastrophic illness. This is a very common benefit in the public and university sectors, but seems to be quite uncommon in the commercial world. Examples of for-profit companies offering such a program would be very helpful in getting support for this idea. Extra points for links to descriptions of the programs, but even anecdotal evidence ("I work for Company X and we have this") would be great.

posted by bac to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

United Health Group does this, although I can't currently give many details of the program. Only employees with a certain number of hours of PTO saved up can donate, I remember, and you can't direct where the donation will go - it just goes to a general time bank.
posted by dilettante at 1:31 PM on January 23, 2007

That sounds like a really cool project that I would love my company (a non-profit) to take part in! When I worked in England, my company there had a similar system where people could either give off their sick days or buy extra vacation time at a small premium from the company to a limit of an extra two weeks each year. But, that said, the company made people take the time they bought and people could not transfer vacation time off.
posted by parmanparman at 1:35 PM on January 23, 2007

My company just recently started a PTO (paid time off) donation program. We don't have different types of leave for sick or vacation time - any time off falls under PTO. The donor must have a minimum PTO balance of 27 hours (three days) left after the donation. The value of the donation is calculated by multiplying the donor's rate of pay times the number of PTO hours donated. The dollar value is then divided by the recipient's pay rate to determine how many PTO hours are credited to the recipient. The donors remain anonymous, but the time does go to the specific employee who's experiencing the illness (or who is caring for a sick family member), not to a general time bank.

I really think it's a great program, and having recently benefited from it, I'm thankful to have had it.
posted by curie at 1:45 PM on January 23, 2007

Response by poster: Curie, thanks. If you'd be willing to tell me (via email to the address in my profile if you prefer -- I'll keep the information confidential) the name and general business of your company, that would be helpful.
posted by bac at 1:59 PM on January 23, 2007

Whole Foods Market does this. In a way...

They don't give vacation/sick days per se, but instead give "benefit hours" which accumulate at a rate dictated by how long you have been working there. I don't know the mechanism exactly (I don't work there, but know someone who does), but they can absolutely donate their hours to other employees. I know for a fact that large numbers of them did this for New Orleans area employees after Katrina, frex
posted by schwap23 at 2:52 PM on January 23, 2007

I work for Accenture, a huge global consulting firm, and my company allows "eligible employees to donate and/or receive donations of accrued paid time off for critical personal situations and family medical emergencies." You can find out more about our general PTO structure here, but unfortunately it doesn't mention the donation option.

I do have an intranet site that tells me a good deal more about the internal process for donations, but I'm not going to copy paste that info here.

Email me (in profile) if you'd like to get more details on the process. I know they used this as a selling point when recruiting me so I don't exactly consider it proprietary info that I can't give you a little insight on.

Its really a great idea - I had a lot of extra PTO I wasn't going to get to use last year and was able to give some to an analyst in the firm that had been hit by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting or something like that.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:56 PM on January 23, 2007

My company does. 1000+ employees. Email me (in profile) and I shall identify.
posted by FauxScot at 5:36 PM on January 23, 2007

I work for a school board, our union has a "sick bank". you must donate a day to join with a balance of 20 day left for your personal use. Occasionally the Sick Bank will ask for one day donation, this has happened 3 times in the last four years. If you choose not to donate at that time, you will be dropped from the bank.

In order to use any days from the bank, you must first deplete fully your own personal sick days. Then you petition the board in writing, asking for additional days.

I had surgery and was out of work for nine weeks, I had 30 days of sick pay and the bank kicked in 15 days. It would have been very hard if I had to go without pay for 3 weeks.
posted by JujuB at 8:59 PM on January 23, 2007

Response by poster: Just as a followup for anybody who might still be reading this thread -- our Board voted last month to adopt the policy that I drafted. The examples in this thread were very helpful in making it clear that the practice is wider than just educational and non-profits. Thanks to all for their responses; I hope we never have to use the policy but it's there if we do.
posted by bac at 10:52 PM on May 3, 2007